"Consider this example: A recent off-campus party—the so-called "Compton Cookout"—was put on by students at the University of California San Diego and featured a black comedian, who calls himself Jiggaboo Jones. This party's marketing materials, which tastelessly parodied African-American stereotypes, not surprisingly created a firestorm of protest led by the school's ethnic studies department, which in its official blog called the stunt racist and complained such that expressions are "alienating" to minority students. Both characterizations are no doubt true.

But when members of the Muslim Student Association carry signs during on-campus protests that say "Jews = Nazis" and Palestinian students repeatedly and thuggishly disrupt Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech, as they did last month at UC Irvine, where are the complaints of racism and alienation of minority (i.e., Jewish and Israeli) students? Where is the defense of Mr. Oren's free speech?

Indeed the UC San Diego ethnic studies department blog roundly condemns Mr. Jones' party, but offers not a word of protest against the racism of the Muslim Student Association. It does, however, provide column-long string of links to articles condemning Israel—but again, not a word about alleged offenses of any other country—not Iran, not Somalia, not North Korea, not Sudan.

Allegations about global warming processes in the Antarctic have nothing to do with real facts, a Russian polar explorer has said. "They are of opportunistic and time-serving character, and have nothing to do with the real weather and climate on the southern continent," Head of Russia's 54th Antarctic expedition Viktor Venderovich told Itar-Tass.

"The past summer on the south pole was cold and windy, and ice floes in the offshore water failed to melt over the entire season.

"The atmospheric air temperature near the Vostok station deep on the continent reached the customary minus 70 degrees Centigrade in the summer, and near the Novolazarevskaya station it never exceeded minus 6-8 degrees," he said after staying at the Novolazarevskaya station for a year.

The previous winter in the Antarctic, he said, "was remarkable for its unusual severity, with blizzards and snowstorms."

The average air temperature was 0.5 degrees lower than usual, and there were too much snow, he said, adding that a "slight warming was registered only on the Antarctic peninsula, while the rest of the continent has not been affected by the global warning and is not going to be."

The Australian - KEVIN Rudd double-crossed Morris Iemma in 2008, withdrawing a guarantee to throw the former NSW premier a lifeline in his battle with the unions over electricity privatisation. The claim, which raises new question marks over the Prime Minisyer’s credibility, is made in a new book on the events that split NSW Labor down the middle in 2007 and 2008, by Daily Telegraph political writer Simon Benson. While the fact Mr Rudd welched on a key deal with Mr Iemma has been part of NSW political folklore since Mr Iemma was tossed out of office in a caucus revolt in September, 2008, Benson’s book is the first time Mr Iemma has confirmed the story in detail.

According to Mr Iemma, Mr Rudd approached him in September, 2007, and asked him to delay his push to privatise NSW electricity assets until after the federal election, in order to delay a damaging brawl with the unions. “Work with me and, when the time comes, we can f--- them together,” Mr Rudd allegedly told Mr Iemma of the unions. But when the time came, and Mr Iemma’s plan was rejected by Labor’s state conference, Mr Rudd refused to use his authority as prime minister to direct the party’s federal executive to back Mr Iemma.

I still remember when this happened, when Iemma was knifed in the back. Up until then he was ploughing ahead confident that he'd get his way on privatization and I remember thinking, how is he going to do this without the help of the unions, I guess now we know who he was counting on to have his back, a weasel of the lowest order.
Not only has kevin rudd betrayed the nation for his own image and pathetic ego, he's betrayed his own people. Surely, it's time we the people voted this disgraceful weasel and his party out of power. Surely, he doesn't have to go any lower than this.

Around a month ago, the clowns masquerading as the leaders of this country came up with yet another brilliant idea. You see after they blew the budget sky-high out of the water with their previous stupidity masquerading as brilliant ideas [surprise-surprise], they came up with yet another brilliant idea to get some money in via taxation. For all intents and purposes it seemed like they'd pulled this new tax off, it was targeted at smokers and since they're usually a target of nanny-state control-freaks and have been demonized in the public's perception, no one really gave a rats ass about the smokers.

But somehow, the leftards have managed to feck this up as well. I can't remember anyone predicting this back when the tax was introduced, but here we are, witnessing yet another leftist feck up.

News.com.au - KEVIN Rudd's tobacco tax is having a direct and debilitating impact on small retailers as smokers cut back on magazines, chocolate and soft drinks to buy cigarettes. Small businesses say they are paying the price for the Rudd Government's 25 per cent increase in tobacco excise, which added an average $2.20 to the price of a pack of 30 cigarettes from April 30. Grocers, newsagents, petrol stations and convenience stores are experiencing little to no drop in cigarette sales, but slumping sales of confectionery, magazines, bottled drinks, newspapers, snack foods and other discretionary purchases, as the impact of rising interest rates, fuel prices and tighter credit squeeze wallets.

So they set out to tax smokers under the guise of reducing their smoking, not only did they fail to do that, they also managed to screw over the poor people selling the wretched things as well. Well done leftards, I have a question, is there any group of people [apart from criminals and parasites] in this country that you haven't managed to piss off?

The Nunavut government does not think the polar bear should be classified as a species of special concern under the federal Species at Risk Act, says territorial Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuk. Shewchuk said there is no clear evidence to support assigning that status to the polar bear despite recommendations to the contrary by Environment Canada and a federal scientific panel.

"We live in polar bear country," Shewchuk told reporters in Iqaluit on Friday afternoon. "We understand the polar bears, and we do actually think our polar bear population is very very healthy, with the exception of a couple of populations that we are taking action on."

Since the curriculum was designed by a well-known Marxist and former member of the Communist party, this was all foreordained. Macintyre's extreme Leftism has of course given him a charmed life in academe but Rudd knew what he was doing when he appointed him

THE new draft national history curriculum has been attacked by leading historians and educators as "politicised", "dumbed down" and pushing an agenda. The Opposition said it was a Labor-designed manifesto in the latest salvo in what has become a fresh break-out of "history wars". Its creators said the curriculum reflected changing values in society.

Prof Geoffrey Blainey said the draft curriculum appeared to represent a "left-wing view of Australian history". Prof Blainey said he was uneasy about the curriculum's treatment of Aboriginal Australians. He said it did not address the failures of pre-settlement Aboriginal society.

Education consultant and former history teacher Dr Kevin Donnelly said the new curriculum had put indigenous and Asian content and perspectives ahead of Australia's Anglo-Celtic tradition, the debt we owe to Western civilisation and the importance of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Dr Donnelly said the curriculum contained 118 references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culture and history - with grade 5s studying White Australia and grade 9s Aboriginal massacres and displacement. There is just one reference to Parliament and none to Westminster or the Magna Carta.

Curriculum chief Prof Stuart Macintyre said the new course was not politically motivated.

Last week, this newspaper quoted a historian by the name of Andrew Garvie about the history curriculum. Andrew Garvie is a pen name used by senior Australian academic Dr Ian Pringle, who now works in sensitive parts of Asia as a teacher and consultant and is an economic history expert.

Fox News - Why are crosses across the country finding themselves in the crosshairs? The mount soledad cross in san diego, the mojave desert cross and now Bald Knob Cross of Peace in Illinois. The Illinois cross was built in 1963, it's eleven stories tall and was made with 650 porcelain panels. Over the years, the weather has damaged or destroyed many of those panels.

Fixing it will cost five hundred fifty thousand dollars, and friends of the cross have so far raised three hundred sixty thousand dollars including a twenty thousand dollar grant from the state of Illinois. But former talk radio host and athiest Rob Sherman calls the Illinois grant "unconstitutional pork" he says if the twenty thousand is not returned to the state he will file a very expensive and lengthy lawsuit.

Sherman is the same man who successfully sued Illinois for allowing schools to have a moment of silence saying that it was truly a "moment of prayer."

I'm not going to bother trying to explain to atheists, leftists, liberals and others who dislike Christianity why letting 20 grand to the restoration of a cross isn't a big deal, that it's really not someone kicking in their door, forcing them to their knees and barking, get ta prayin' boy! I know whatever we say isn't going to make any difference to them, so I'll just try and explain what lies at the end of this road they insist on taking.

A waiver is the voluntary surrender of some right or privilege. Does the big brain below mean "waver"?

DSE invites members of the Victorian Public Service to a presentation on: Dealing with climate change denialism with Paul Holper, CSIRO

Popular opinion on climate change often waivers, particularly when the media focus on denialist views and encourage “debates” with climate change scientists. The Victorian Government, along with other governments in Australia and across the world, rely on the scientific community for advice on climate change and its likely impacts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is recognised as the international authority on climate change science and denialist views often lack rigor and credibility in comparison. Paul Holper (CSIRO) will present on ways to approach climate change denialism in a Victorian context.

Paul Holper Paul manages the CSIRO’s involvement in the Australian Climate Change Science Program, a $15 million program supported by the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. This program undertakes observations of the atmosphere, oceans and terrestrial systems, as well as climate model development, and projections of Australia’s likely future climate. Paul coordinated the most recent climate change projections for Australia (based on IPCC models), announced by BoM and CSIRO in 2007.

If Mr Justice Martin is correct below -- and I believe that he is at least partly right -- the problem with violent black males starts when the males concerned were themselves abused as children. So shouldn't we be removing such children to more peaceful homes? And given the lack of peace in most black homes that would mean bring up black children in white foster homes -- precisely what the Leftist "stolen generation" accusers condemn

VIOLENCE in north Australian indigenous communities shows no sign of abating and it could be a further 25 years before any meaningful progress is made, a top judge has warned. In words laced with anguish and despair, Northen Territory Chief Justice Brian Martin announced his surprise resignation - eight years before compulsory retirement age - admitting that "some of the cases have been rough and demoralising". "You reach a point," he said, "where you say enough is enough."

Justice Martin said jail had become an ineffective means of rehabilitation and that he had become tired of seeing a growing tide of Aboriginal men repeatedly before the courts for violent crimes against women. "It is somewhat demoralising and distressing to see so many cases of that nature and so many offenders who are repeat offenders," he said. "These need to be addressed at a level before it gets to the court because there is a limit to what we can do. "We can put people in jail, but that in itself has proved to be an ineffective way of rehabilitating people."

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is celebrating the departure of Malcolm Fraser. I don't think ZEG gets all the details of history right but he has got the general drift pretty right.

News.com.au - AUSTRALIAN doctors are considering a controversial form of genital mutilation on baby girls. The practice involving cutting a girl's genitals, sometimes with razors or pieces of glass, could be allowed in a clinical setting to stem illegal backyard procedures which are leaving young girls scarred for life.

...Female genital mutilation has been outlawed in Australia since the 1990s but is common among African, Asian and Middle Eastern communities. With the rise in Somali and Sudanese numbers in Australia, doctors are seeing more cases of young girls, and women, needing surgery after illegal operations. Backers of "ritual nick" said it was a superficial procedure leaving no long-term damage.

Just an update on this, I just heard on the radio, a spokesman for The Royal Australian New Zealand College of Obstetricians has just informed us that this is not going to happen here, period. I can tell you they've saved themselves a lot of trouble, the talkback lines were running white-hot this morning on this. However I'd like to make some points on this practice patient reader.

This may be turfed but don't take your eye off the socialists, leftists, liberals and progressives out there in the western world. You and I both know that they are susceptible to any evil, so long as it's framed in a multi-cultural, non-racist, tolerant light. I can already hear the arguments and half-baked one-liners they'll be toying with to justify turning a blind eye.

BBC - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has given first aid training to Taliban members in Afghanistan. An ICRC statement said the organisation had provided basic training and first aid kits to about 70 members of the "armed opposition" last month. The ICRC said that it had also provided training to civilians. A spokesman said that the training had been going on for some time to ensure that everyone is treated humanely. ...He said that giving first aid training to armies and armed opposition groups was "routine" in other conflict areas of the world such as Sri Lanka. Hat tip Andrew Bolt.

Yes, I'm sure their motto is to be as impartial as possible and I'm really thrilled for them and their terrorist buddies, but I certainly won't be reaching for my wallet the next time they come asking for pennies. I don't particularly care if they're helping tamil tigers and Sri Lankan troops as well, but I get really pissed off when my fellow countrymen are fighting Taliban scum and have been killed by them, only to find out the red cross is helping my enemy. So they can shove their 'impartiality' up their ass, I'm picking my side and sticking to it and I'd encourage you dear reader to do the same.

The Australian - ...In an attempt to capitalise on rising community anger at the continued flow of boats which have brought 2805 asylum-seekers to Australia so far this year, the Coalition will unveil a suite of measures harden its border security credentials. At the heart of those measures is a new, tougher class of temporary protection visa to be issued to all unauthorised asylum-seekers.

...Refugees whose visas were extended for more than a year would have full access to services such as Medicare and language training as well as work rights. But anyone unable to find a job could be required to work under a mutual obligation arrangement similar to the work-for-the-dole scheme for domestic jobseekers. "One of the best ways to help (refugees) is to get them into work," Mr Morrison said.

Exactly right, if I were a refugee who arrived in a country and was provided all these services, I would want to try and give something back. Not only will this give them some self-pride, it'll also be a signal to the citizens of this country that refugees are not just here to sponge off us, but to do something in return.

Times Online - Speaking in Seoul, alongside the South Korean foreign minister, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, called on the international community to take retaliatory action against Pyongyang, which is accused of causing the deaths of 46 sailors in an unprovoked torpedo attack on the corvette Cheonan in March. But she failed to specify any concrete measures, underlining how few options, short of full scale war, are available in dealing with the North. “This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond,” Mrs Clinton said in Seoul after talks with her South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung Hwan.

Yes, yes, yes, unacceptable, naughty, naughty, *wag finger*, tisk-tisk, tut-tut, blah, blah. Yes everyone has a responsibility and a duty to respond, we must all do something! For @#$%sakes somebody do something! So that's what the zero obama administration has come down to. Back when zero was elected, he was going to make the sun shine out of his ass, he was going to calm the seas, he was going to set an example, lead the way, justice for terrorists, fight fire with words, he was going to restore something or other about America's image.

Leftist scum and their liberal boot-polishers the world over were breathing sighs of relief, thank godless the Bush years are over, the cowboy has been sent back to Texas, sanity has been restored, the adults are back in charge, meetings will be held, press conferences, the one is here, the sponging pen-pushers diplomatic armada will be restored and deployed to solve all the worlds problems. And here we have the glorious results, a lot of huffing and puffing that will lead to sweet bugger all.

Far from perfect but an impressive start. Britain is once again in the hands of people who love their country and respect the individual

Opening ceremonies above. The Brits still do pomp best of all

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron tilted the coalition away from the Liberal Democrats with a Queen's Speech that defined tax, immigration and police reform on Tory terms. The Prime Minister promised a "new start for Britain" with smaller, better government as he unveiled 23 Bills to transfer powers to voters and transform politics.

The fine print of the 18-month legislative programme revealed that he had won a series of behind the scenes victories over his coalition partners. They included:

A commitment to lower taxation, the first time since the coalition was formed that such a pledge has been made. Nick Clegg told The Times last week that the Government's priority was to rebalance the tax burden, not to reduce it. Last week's coalition programme promised "more competitive, simpler, greener and fairer" tax, but no mention of lower taxation;

Scope for George Osborne [Chancellor of the Exchequer] to keep rises in capital gains tax to a minimum. The Lib Dem policy - to increase CGT from 18per cent to 40per cent for top earners, in line with income tax rates - was trimmed in coalition talks. Last week the Government said rates would be "similar or close to" income tax rates. The Queen's Speech documents water that down, saying that CGT will be taxed at rates "closer" to income tax;

A reinstatement of the Tory election pledge to cut non-EU immigration to tens of thousands a year. The aim disappeared from the coalition programme as the Lib Dems accepted an undefined annual limit. The level is now back;

He always was "holier than thou" -- a supercilious old b*stard. I regret that I once shook his hand. After his wimpish Prime Minstership, he has been loathed by many Australian conservatives for a long time

FORMER Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser has quit the party, allegedly over a belief it has tilted too far to the right.

Mr Fraser resigned in December, shortly after Malcolm Turnbull was turfed as Opposition leader over his support for emissions trading, The Australian Financial Review reported.

He allegedly told friends his replacement, Tony Abbott, was "all over the place" on policy and disliked the racist overtones adopted by the party in the debate on immigration.

Mr Fraser, the prime minister from 1975 to 1983, confirmed his decision to quit yesterday, saying the party was no longer a liberal party but a conservative party.

Although he failed to elaborate, he has recently been critical of the Coalition in the media, particularly over its stance on the Israeli passports affair.

Daily Telegraph - NSW Health bureaucrats have spent $22.7 million on first and business class airfares in the past two years as businesses waited for hospitals to pay their bills. The Daily Telegraph has uncovered a whopping $114 million spent on airfares for NSW public servants - including $27 million on first-class and business-class flights overseas. The health bureaucracy are the biggest spenders at a time when it has faced stinging criticism over failing to pay hospital bills - often to small businesses - on time. ...In the same period as the heavy spending on international travel (in 2007-08 and 2008-09), more than 70 per cent of invoices were not being paid by area health services in the required 45 days.

Not a week goes by where we don't hear a story out of the socialized healthcare system of some failing or neglect or lack of equipment. The excuses are usually always that there isn't enough money, the budget, etc. Apart from the fact that it's really surprising that a 'free' system is costing us money, it's even more surprising that this system that's supposedly broke has money for first class tickets and such for public servants.

But that's leftist government for you, they have money for useless parasites to fly around the world, they have plenty of money to house illegal immigrants in nice hotels, they have money to teach Africans to ride bicycles and lots of other useless shit, but when it comes to getting a hip replacement or eye surgery, the taxpayers are left whistling in the wind.

News.com.au - POLICE and health authorities have launched a national appeal for information from people who may have come into contact with a circus acrobat alleged to have knowingly spread a serious disease. The 31-year-old Zimbabwean-born Australian citizen appeared in a Sydney court today for an extradition hearing and is due to appear in the Southport Magistrates Court tomorrow, Queensland Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Col McCallum told reporters in Brisbane. Mr McCallum said the man, who has been HIV positive since 1997, would face two charges relating to transmitting a serious disease. "Anyone in Queensland with information that could assist police with the matter is urged to contact police,'' he said. Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said the man allegedly had had unprotected sex with at least 12 women across the country.

When I saw this on the news, I couldn't help but think, could have all been avoided if these 12 fools hadn't opened their legs. Even after all the sex education and the condoms thrown around all over the place, they still had unprotected sex with this fellow. And now they'll have to pay such a high price for their stupidity and we the taxpayers will also have to pay the price of their healthcare.

I still remember when our federal opposition leader admitted to telling his daughters to save themselves for marriage, he was pilloried right across the country. Well, I'm sure these women are today wishing they had a bit of that advice, perhaps they did but chose to dismiss it as old fashioned nonsense, men can do it so can we, abortion can sort out the consequences if it's needed, etc. Well, it's too late now and none of the fools who support this sort of stupidity will be around to help them put humpty-dumpty back together again. They'll be off watching the premier of sex and the city 2 or was it more sex in the city and everywhere else.

Here's to hoping their mistake will awaken others before it's too late.

How did a prisoner in a Victorian police cell become "bloody"? And how come it was initially covered up?

Sickening CCTV footage of a bleeding prisoner crawling from his cell has been described as "deeply disturbing" by a Victoria Police commissioner.

The Chinese man, in his 50s, who was arrested and placed in a cell at Dandenong police station for being drunk, pleaded for help, soiled himself and was bleeding when he was bailed by police on May 12.

Five minutes later, as an interpreter tried to help him, police called an ambulance, but he died the following day in hospital.

Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius said an officer had been put on alternative duties while the ethical standards department and the homicide squad investigate the Dandenong death.

Neither the earth nor the moon is a "black body". Both the moon and the earth are warmer than they "should be" -- even though one has no CO2 at all

Yes, that’s right, there is a “greenhouse effect” on our moon and it’s even greater than here on earth. The idea of an atmospheric “greenhouse effect” was invented to justify why earth is supposedly “warmer than it should be” if there was no atmosphere.

As we now know from NASA’s research, even our moon is “warmer than it should be”, by a whopping 40 degrees C where earth is a mere 33 degrees “warmer”.

“We’ve been told that the earth’s surface is quite a bit warmer than calculations predict. Theory has it that heat-trapping “greenhouse gases” account for a 33° Celsius disparity. But it turns out that our airless moon is also quite a bit warmer than predicted. Might something be wrong with the prediction method itself, then? It’s a natural question to ask, so let’s look into it.”

“The Earth is not “unusually” warm. It is the application of the predictive equation that is faulty. The ability of common substances to store heat makes a mockery of blackbody estimates. The belief that radiating trace gases explain why earth’s surface temperature deviates from a simple mathematical formula is based on deeply erroneous assumptions about theoretical vs. real bodies.”

The justification for calculating the temperature that earth “should be at” is shown to be incorrect. It’s based on a formula that is used to convert irradiation levels to temperature and vice versa, based on a blackbody. Earth nor any planet that we know of behaves like a blackbody. All planets literally absorb some of the solar heat during daytime and emit some of that during nighttime. Our moon is the perfect example of that: it has no atmosphere and receives as good as the same level of irradiation as earth does.

Our atmosphere is shown to act as a coolant during the day and a retarder of cooling during the nighttime; the amount of retardation depending on the relative humidity of the atmosphere, which in turn determines the total heat content of a given volume of the atmosphere.

But at all times our atmosphere acts as a conveyor of heat, never a creator of heat. This essay puts it into perspective.

It does not matter what our atmosphere is made of, it is the surface, including the oceans, that makes it “warmer than it should be”.

And yes, seeing that carbon dioxide is actually a good radiator, the only possible effect it can have on the atmosphere is to increase its cooling efficiency; it can’t possibly make the atmosphere warmer. Adding a coolant gas to a coolant atmosphere, what else could you expect?

Please spread this paper far and wide, as it clearly proves by means of direct observations that no atmosphere is needed to be “warmer than calculated”. Nothing to do with CO2 after all.

SMH - The NSW government has bowed to pressure and announced a fresh review of laws governing the deaths of unborn children. It comes after pleas from NSW Central Coast couple Brodie Donegan and Nick Ball, who lost their baby daughter in a tragic accident on Christmas Day 2009. Ms Donegan was 32 weeks pregnant when she was hit by a car allegedly driven by a motorist high on drugs, while out walking near her home at Ourimbah.

Basically she wants the driver of the car to be tried for manslaughter because she killed her unborn baby, however the laws don't recognize the unborn baby as a human being. Most people out there thought that this was already the case and can't see why the laws cannot be changed, you see, most decent folk out there who see a woman waddling around with a protruding belly know that there's a baby inside there. They know instinctively that it's life in there and if some woman walked up to her and kicked her in the belly that it's not the same as just kicking a woman with no belly.

by Don Easterbrook (Tim Lambert is a computer science academic at the Uni. of NSW. He knows a lot about computers -- other things not so much)

As some of you may know, my recent paper at the Heartland global climate conference has been attacked by Gareth Renowden and posted by Tim Lambert on his blog. Although I don't normally even read this kind of garbage, I responded to an inquiry by Andy Revkin with the attached:

"When you are losing an argument on the basis of facts and evidence, the oldest trick in the world is to invent some outrageous lie, the more outrageous the better, and while people are reacting to the lie, attention is diverted from the real issue. It is a sure sign of desperation in distracting attention from facts and data. The outrageous charge of fraud made by a self professed "photographer and truffle grower" (Gareth Renowden) is not worthy of response, but because the charge is so easily refuted, I will do so......

According to Mr. Renowden (the "truffle grower), "Looking through Easterbrook's slides, it seems he has taken a graph of Holocene temperature variations prepared by Global Warming Art (used at Wikipedia), and altered it to fraudulently bolster his case. ... Easterbrook has quite deliberately altered the graph to reduce "current temperatures" by 0.75ºC and make the curve fit his storyline.

The data in my paper comes from oxygen isotope analyses of ice cores in Greenland made by Dr. Minze Stuiver and Dr. Peter Grootes, long recognized as the world standard for accurate paleotemperatures over thousands of years and used by thousands of scientists all over the world. This data is readily available for anyone to use so my graphs can be reproduced by anyone.

The charge by 'the truffle grower' that I used a graph "prepared by Global Warming Art" and that I "altered it to fraudulently bolster his case" is an outright, contemptible lie. I have the entire Greenland oxygen isotope data in my computer and use it extensively to plot data, so why would I use anything else?

The data I use has never been altered in any way. According to the 'truffle grower,' "The original suggests that current temperatures are comparable to, perhaps higher than the warmest period of the Holocene, the post-glacial climatic optimum 8000 years ago. Easterbrook's version gives the impression that for most of the last 10,000 years temperature has been warmer than today."

This is totally false--below is the Greenland data for the past 10,000 years (Holocene) from the published paper by Cuffy and Clow (1997), two distinguished US scientists. Note that temperatures for almost all of the past 10,000 years have been warmer than present. Oh, and while you're looking at the data, also note all of the temperature ups and downs that occurred thousands of years before modern increase in CO2, most of which were of greater intensity than recent warming. Perhaps the 'truffle grower' should learn to read a graph...."

The welfare "industry" again. As Peter Bauer said long ago, foreign aid is a scheme for transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. These days, it looks like rich people in rich countries are getting a big slice of it too

AUSTRALIA'S foreign aid program is under siege after revelations tens of millions of dollars are being wasted on huge salaries for consultants and rich contracts for private firms. An extensive investigation has uncovered a lucrative foreign aid "industry", raising questions about the Rudd Government's decision to double annual spending to more than $8 billion.

And a high-level review has slammed the $414 million program in Papua New Guinea, claiming $100 million is being paid to a handful of firms – but delivering little.

Aid experts also have questioned the size of contracts paid to "briefcase" advisers who fly in to poor countries, including East Timor, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Tonga. The Courier-Mail's extensive investigation can reveal:

Daily Mail - New speed cameras will be dramatically blocked today under government plans to win over motorists and save the taxpayer money. Chancellor George Osborne is planning to scrap grants worth tens of millions that are handed to local councils each year to fund new speed traps, the Daily Mail has learned. In the past decade, the number of cameras has trebled, making Britain the speed camera capital of Europe. But many motorists believe they are installed to raise money rather than to reduce speed and cut the risk of accidents. In 2001 there were 1,571 speed traps, but the most recent figures suggest that the total had risen to 4,309 by 2007. Germany has 3,000 cameras, Italy has fewer than 2,000 and France under 1,000. But road deaths have declined more slowly in Britain than in many other European countries in recent years, while drink-driving deaths have become more common.

This is wonderful news, finally after years and years of living in terror from those bastard nazi scum at local councils, motorists in Britain finally have a reprieve. Now I've never driven there or experienced the wrath of their councils, but I can tell you from experience here that I have no love or respect for local councils or government and their speed cameras. I'm sure they feel the same way or worse given how many of the wretched things they have. Cop on the road I have no problem with, but the cold, indifferent metal shitbox taking pictures and screwing over motorists, those things and their operators can eat sh!t and die.

When you're pulled over by a cop you can tell him, look the missus is in the hospital, lot on my mind, I wasn't drag racing or something, give me a break and if he's not a bastard he'll let you off with a warning. But good luck trying that with the metal shitbox and the bureaucratic scum that operate and administer it. So I'll raise a glass of single-malt to this Osborne fellow tonight, thank you, thank you good sir and I hope that they continue to starve the fascist beast that is local councils in Britain. And in case they didn't get my thoughts on them, eat sh!t and die fascist councils.

I am not going to say one thing below that is original. But it always appalls me when people believe the opposite of the truth and I have to speak up about it.

Eugenio Pacelli was a small but determined man of great intelligence and high principle. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939 and was Pope throughout WWII. He had been papal nuncio in Germany for many years prior to that and came to speak perfect German -- a remarkable achievement for an Italian who had all his education in Italy. During his time in Germany he saw of course the rise of Nazism and regularly condemned it in no uncertain terms.

In 1937 he wrote on behalf of Pius XI the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With burning sorrow") -- a condemnation of Nazi persecution of non-Nazis. Encyclicals are usually written in Latin so writing this encyclical in German showed how determined the church was to speak up on behalf of all those being oppressed by the Nazis.

The tiny minority of Pacelli's critics who have some knowledge of history sometimes point to the fact that in his role as nuncio, Pacelli was responsible for a Konkordat with the German Federal government that was signed in 1933. Pacelli's job was to arrange concordats (agreements) with various governments that would safeguard the independence of church schools, allow the preaching of Catholic doctrine etc. And he did in fact achieve many such agreements, an agreement with the Southern German (and very Catholic) State of Bayern (Bavaria) being one of the earliest. German Laender, were, like American States today, substantially independent and had their own legal and school systems etc.

Pacelli had been trying for some time to get such an agreement with the Federal German government but had always been knocked back. When Hitler came to power, however, he was keen to legitimate himself so he changed the prior Federal stance and signed up. At that stage Hitler was simply the newly-elected German Kanzler (Prime Minister) and there was of course no knowledge of his future deeds. So how was Pacelli at fault about that? It may be noted that when Mit brennender Sorge was issued Hitler broke his agreements in the Konkordat and persecuted Catholic clergy. So the arrangement of a Konkordat was a wise precaution, even if it was a precaution that ultimately failed.

Pacelli did however learn from what happened when Mit brennender Sorge was issued. When war broke out, Pacelli fell largely silent. He saw that he would probably bring down further persecution of the church by adding to his existing criticisms of Nazism. Instead he concentrated on deeds rather than words. The Vatican became a lifeline for endangered Jews. It supplied money to get them out of Germany and false ID documents saying that they were Christians. And note that this was at a time when the church regarded the Jews as enemies. In the theology of the time, the Jews had killed the Catholics' God and that was one hell of a bad way to start a friendship.

And when the Germans came to Italy itself, Pacelli rose to even greater efforts. He exempted monasteries and nunneries from their normal rules so that they could take in and hide Jews that the Nazis were pursuing. Even his own summer residence at Castel Gandolfo was said at one time to be hiding 3,000 Jews, though nobody knows the exact number.

And this is the man whom many Leftists refer to as "Hitler's Pope"! So why the lie? Why is this exceptionally fine man "controversial"?

Easy: Soviet disinformation. As we all know, the church utterly opposed "Godless" Communism and the Soviets rightly perceived the Vatican as an important enemy. So the Soviets and their fellow travellers in the West put about this abominable lie that Pacelli was antisemitic and sympathetic to the Nazis. And it suits the anti-Christian stance of modern-day Leftists to believe it too.

So it grieves me greatly that this true man of God is taken for the opposite of what he was. The world needs more men like Eugenio Pacelli -- perhaps now more than ever. Even I as an atheist salute him.

There is an interesting story here about how one man finally broke through the lies and found out the truth about Pacelli.

Times Online - AT least 300,000 Whitehall and other public sector workers may lose their jobs as the coalition government sets to work cutting the £156 billion budget deficit. As George Osborne, the chancellor, prepares to unveil the first £6 billion of cuts tomorrow, the full scale of the job losses that will follow has begun to emerge. The initial savings to be announced will target such items as civil servants’ perks, which include taxis, flights and hotel accommodation. The package will also include a £513m cut in the budgets for quangos, with some being abolished altogether.

You know your really wasting money when you are officially spending money on positions or people that don't even make sense. Did anyone ever know what the heck is a 'quango'? I've heard the term mentioned on some British blogs, but I always thought it was a term of insult they used over there, like wanker, ratbag or bludger in Australia. I never thought a 'quango' was an actual position or job, or even an actual organization.

From what I've just googled, a quango is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation and apparently these quangos cost the British taxpayer upwards of about 50 billion pounds a year. Yes, a non-governmental organization that costs the taxpayer money. Naturally they're not accountable to the government nor the taxpayers who have to fund them. And the amount of money given to them has grown under the labour government, yeah real shock that eh.

To be fair, the conservative governments have also funded them. However if it was me running the joint and facing a deficit of 156 billion pounds, the first to get the kick would be the quangos, that's around 50 billion savaged off the deficit right away. None the less, I hope the British government makes savage cuts into its services and into the parasites sucking off the taxpayers.

It's going to be hard and painful, but they either do this or they go the way of Greece, there simply are no other options. You know what the sad thing is, if they do this, they'll be pilloried and hated until their term ends, such is the fate of responsible adults who have to clean up the mess left by the teenage prats before them in the western world.

"The dad of a teenage vandal branded "absolute scum" by a magistrate today backed the JP's bid to win back his job — saying: "I totally agree with him."

Austin Molloy, 57, was axed from his job as chairman of the bench when a court clerk complained after he branded two 16-year-old boys who vandalised Blackburn Cathedral "scum".

He made the remarks at Blackburn Magistrates Court while sentencing the yobs for scrawling obscene graffiti on prayer books and damaging a priceless John The Baptist cross — causing £3,000 of damage.

But now the father of one of the boys, who along with his son cannot be named for legal reasons, has backed the magistrate's choice of words. He said: "I totally agree with what Mr Molloy said and I've not got a problem with him whatsoever. "I back him 100 per cent. As far as I am concerned Mr Molloy should get his job back...

Mr Molloy, a managing director at an engineering firm, told the teens, from Darwen, Lancs, while sentencing them: "Normal people would consider you absolute scum." But he was immediately reprimanded by court clerk Christine Dean for his "inappropriate language".

Grandad-of-one Mr Molloy, also from Darwen — chairman of the bench for 14 years and a magistrate for 18 — has received widespread support from local politicians and residents.

More than 2,000 people have joined a Facebook campaign in support of the JP, while others have begun a group saying the clerk who reported Mr Molloy should be sacked instead.

A decision by a climate-change group to fly leading activists 12,000 miles to a conference threatens to tear the movement apart. The leadership of Climate Camp – which is opposed to flying and airport expansion – have been accused of hypocrisy after they sent two members on a £1,200 round-trip to Bolivia.

The leaders argued it was necessary to attend the ‘transnational protest’ – even though the flights generated eight tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gases.

Now a furious backlash against the trip threatens to split the group, which in the past has blockaded Heathrow airport and clashed with police at demonstrations against coal-fired power stations. A memo circulated to Climate Camp members claimed the group had been taken over by a ‘clique’ who were manipulating its work. The note claimed ‘the same small group controls all aspects’ of the movement and that a ‘stagnant culture’ ensured the ‘same people always filled the same roles’.

One activist wrote on the group’s Facebook page: ‘If you believe flying halfway around the world is a necessary mission for Climate Camp, I feel you are sadly deluded.’ She added: ‘It is an absolute disgrace that any Climate Camper would even think about going by air.’ [swim?]

The activist later submitted a formal complaint to the group. She said: ‘There was no due process in permitting two Climate Campers to travel to Bolivia by plane. 'There was little discussion on the mode of transport to be used and no consensus to permit it.’

The complaint provoked a furious backlash from Ben Hart, one of the activists who flew to Bolivia. In a series of postings on Facebook under the pseudonym Gringo Ben, he lashed out at opponents of the trip. He wrote: ‘Get over it, if you wanna play this liberal self-denial game...I’ve been vegan for 17 years of my life and gone many years without a car. ‘If I died tomorrow and didn’t take my return flight or any others in the future, the planet would still be being ruined.’

He added: ‘You seem to think Climate Camp is, or should be, purist, but the Camp is not dogmatic but actually quite pragmatic when it comes to the compromises necessary to engage in campaigning. ‘It’s bang out of order to point a finger at us in this way and question our role in the Camp. It was a Camp decision, good or bad.’

Climate Camp describes itself as a grassroots movement and is supposedly controlled by its membership at regular meetings.

But the group of angry members claim they are ‘disillusioned with the process’ and that ‘it is alienating new attendees and undermining the motivation and commitment to the movement’.

They said in their memo: ‘The hierarchical culture that is forming is dishonest and is in contradiction of our non-hierarchical principles and aspirations.’

Herald Sun - CIVIL rights of young inmates have overtaken common sense in juvenile justice as staff are subjected to constant assault, a former staff member claims. They cannot even raise their voice in retaliation, former unit manager Colin Richardson says. In recent weeks, a pregnant officer at the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre was threatened with death by an inmate and another officer lost two front teeth in an assault. "Nobody gets charged. And if you yell at an inmate you get stood down," Mr Richardson said.

Metal detectors and strip searches were banned, so drugs and weapons were common inside the centre. He said of about 140 officers at the centre, he believed up to 70 per cent had made injury or stress-related WorkSafe Claims. "They can't even isolate inmates if they misbehave - it's all about rewarding good behaviour with things like takeaways and outings," Mr Richardson said. "And this is the breeding ground for inmates to go onto bigger and worse things." He said youth officers gave the inmates too much trust, when many were locked up for serious crimes. Hat tip Andrew Bolt.

Read an article here about the cover-up of ethnic crime by police and their political masters in Victoria. The question we have to ask ourselves before we start ranting and raving at the pc-scum who enable and encourage such destructive behavior is, who put them in charge. From the top down in Australia, it's the left of politics that's running the show, it's labor and I'm sorry to say this, they didn't mount a military coup and take over or something, they were voted in by us. And what's worse, this isn't some fad or temporary pot-induced high, we've been voting for these worthless bastards over and over.

We'd better figure out our ass from our elbow soon folks, otherwise we'll be lying in hospital with missing teeth and a leaking lung, only to watch a news report on the evening news about some obscure altercation and how the ethnics are doing so very well, multi-culti melting pot, kumbaya, move along.

And we should ask ourselves, why are we constantly relying on our politicians to keep us safe when they just can't or won't.

Daily Mail - Gavin Gordon, 31, a drug addict who has a string of convictions for violence dating back more than ten years, was part of a gang that raped a 26-year-old woman in her home in Clapham, south London, while her boyfriend screamed as he was tortured in the next room. The woman was leaving her flat shortly after midnight on October 26, 2008, when several men approached her and demanded money, police said. They covered her head and forced her back inside her flat, where they made her text her boyfriend and ask him to come over.

Kevin McCracken says in the article excerpted below that population growth in Africa is a bad thing and that population shrinking in the West can be managed. The first part seems rather racist and I certainly make no judgement on the matter. Africa's problems are for Africa only, as far as I can see. McCracken certainly makes no effort to show otherwise.

McCracken justifies his second assertion with the extraordinarily unscholarly comment that "There is research around that suggests" it to be so. One would certainly hope for some clearer indication of where the research concerned is to be found.

Nonetheless, I don't doubt that population shrinkage in the developed countries can be managed. Japan is already doing a good job with a large elderly population and trivial levels of immigration.

What McCracken simply does not answer is that the developed countries produce most of the innovations that improve people's lives and that it is only a tiny minority of even those populations that do the innovating. And shrinking such populations must surely shrink the numbers of those precious innovators. In some inscrutible way, McCracken seems to think that population growth in Africa answers that argument.

But the point and purpose of McCracken's very unscholarly and illogical article becomes clear if one realises that he is just another Greenie people-hater. He is in fact a former dean of Environmental and Life Sciences at Australia's Macquarie University.

Cardwell is in Far-North Queensland, where I come from, and I can understand well what is reported below. The old Australian "She'll be right, mate" gospel rules up there, implying a general disrespect for rules, regulations and precautions. Sadly, however, things are sometimes NOT right and the case below would seem to be an instance of that. I am pretty sure that in Cardwell the general opion would be that it was just bad luck but the learned judge has found otherwise so he may be right. As a man of the Far North, however, my respect for learned judges is not high. It is easy to be wise after the event about precautions that SHOULD have been taken

A Cafe operator that failed to properly guard against cooking oil spillage was ordered to pay $463,158 to a waitress who slipped on the kitchen floor, yesterday.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Peter Lyons found Mollking Holdings Pty Ltd, which ran a cafe and service station at Cardwell in north Queensland, had caused by its negligence injury to employee Cherrie Ann Jones.

Last month in Cairns, Justice Lyons ordered Mollking pay $470,628 in damages but he reopened the case to make an adjustment of the damages amount in Brisbane, yesterday.

He reduced the figure by $7469 to reflect compensation already paid to Jones.

The court heard Jones, 34, was carrying plates on a tray away from the washing up area into the cooking area when her feet went from under her. She fell heavily landing on her buttocks. Jones suffered a fracture of the sacrum (vertabrae near the pelvis) and chronic soft tissue damage.

Mollking defended the case on the basis of contributory negligence in that it alleged Jones was walking too fast when carrying the tray. However, Justice Lyons rejected the contributory negligence claim.

Justice Lyons found the arrangements in the kitchen area were likely that oil would spill on the floor and it should have been known to those running the cafe. He said that increased the risk and a practical arrangement could have been made to avoid the problem.

Justice Lyons said it followed Jones's injuries were caused by Mollking's negligence.

News.com.au - TENS of thousands of Greeks demonstrated in Athens and other cities today in the second general strike this month against a debt-dictated pension reform and government spending cuts. About 17,000 people demonstrated in the capital and about 5000 more marched in second city Thessaloniki, according to police estimates, calling on the Socialist government to drop pay cuts and a controversial pension reform.

..."These measures take us 150 years back," read a banner borne by protesters. "We want the government to take back these measures which freeze our pay rises and force us to stay longer in the workforce," said Maria Grigoropoulou, a cosmetics store employee. "We will continue our struggle and we will not back down," she said.

..."We are here to send a strong message to the government, the Brussels directorate, the IMF and all those pencil pushers who are targeting the social, labour, pension and economic rights of employees," Stathis Anestis, a leading member of the General Confederation of Workers (GSEE), said in a speech to protesters.

I'm starting to wonder if all the taxpayers of Europe and elsewhere ought abandon Greece. Think about this, they're ones on the brink of falling into the sewer and they're still carrying on about wages and retirement age. It seems these assholes think that money grows on trees, perhaps they need to be taught a hard lesson.

Today, Obama Democrats have now mastered the treacherous art of the pre-emptive global apology. Foggy Bottom is crammed with so many "human rights" zealots embarrassed by the country they serve that the State Department mission statement should be replaced with a condolence card.

Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner is probably not the first Obama State Department official to badmouth America in front of foreign delegations. He was just dumb enough to get caught.

Last week, the former head agitator at the transnationalist outfit Human Rights First trashed our country's human rights record to Chinese government officials.

Posner is an unrepentant open-borders radical who has long fought immigration enforcement and vociferously opposed post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism measures to detain enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. He was active in supporting the establishment of the International Criminal Court, an American sovereignty-undermining tribunal that would trump U.S. judicial authority over war crimes and "crimes of humanity."

And New Yorkers may recall that he joined with Human Rights First board member Tom Goldstein, far-left billionaire George Soros and other American self-loathers in the failed effort to turn the Sept. 11 Ground Zero Memorial into a national guilt complex to showcase how George W. Bush-era counterterrorism policies were curtailing civil liberties.

(...is that obama with his hand over his heart? I wonder which anthem was playing...?)

Ya gotta give the punk credit for one thing: filipè calderon has him some cojones de cobre amarillo.The Thief-in-Chief of the People's Drug-ocracy de Mexico - was in D.C. for a "let's mess with America summit" with Pharaoh Sock Puppet, and (while standing on the White House lawn!) took the opportunity to denounce the Arizona anti-illegal alien law, crying that his peons might "face discrimination"!!!Not to be out-done, the Apologist-in-Chief obama also whined, "I think the Arizona law has the potential of being applied in a discriminatory fashion."

Just in the interest of some desperately-needed context, here's a partial list of the Mexican immigration laws - which, presumably, Señor Jefe de los Banditos would have to consider as being "NON-discriminatory":1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.* * * * * * * *2. All ballots will be in this nation's language.* * * * * * * *3. All government business will be conducted in our language.* * * * * * * *4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.* * * * * * * *5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office.* * * * * * * *6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.* * * * * * * *7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.* * * * * * * *8. If foreigners come here and buy land... options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.* * * * * * * *9. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.* * * * * * * *10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted and, when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.* * * * * * * * *....oh, and just ever-so-coincidentally, did you know that Mexico currently holds over $47 BILLION in T-bills of our debt?

Now that would lead any THINKING individual to ask, "Just what - precisely - should we presume to be your motivation to join with a foreign national to piss on America, Mr. President?"

Interesting that only one of them appears to be of Northern European/British appearance, despite people of that ethnicity being the overwhelming majority of the Australian population.

Equally interesting that Victoria police refused to issue the pictures. It took a court order to get the pictures released. Victoria police are deeply committed to hiding from the public the huge problem of ethnic crime. I'm glad I don't live in Melbourne. A lot of Queensland police are thugs but they are not compulsorily dishonest and deceptive

THE Police Association has slammed the inadequacies of the state's justice system as the faces of six 'desperate' teens who escaped from a juvenile justice centre last were finally revealed.

The teens, aged between 15 and 17, fled the Parkville Juvenile Justice Centre about 10pm last night and are believed to have already committed an armed robbery on a Coles supermarket and stolen a car.

heraldsun.com.au can now reveal the faces and names of the escapees, after a court order was issued granting permission for their use.

Police Association secretary Sen-Sgt Greg Davies said the escape showed the inadequacies of the justice system.

"Incidents like this show how police are often stuck on a merry-go-round where they pick up people committing crimes, drop them at the exit and by the time the merry go round comes again the offenders are standing waiting to get back on the ride,’’ Sen-Sgt Davies said.

"It highlights that people with a propensity for violence or who commit serious offences, regardless of age, should be dealt with by the full force of the law and not be put in a position where they can walk away....

The six youths were serving sentences for various offences, including some for assault and armed robbery and were said to be wearing blue tracksuits when they escaped.

5 out of 6 have now been recaptured and the original article and pictures have been taken down. For some strange reason, however, I took the precaution of saving the picture to disk -- and have reposted it from a new location above.

Bill Kininmonth (Kininmonth is a meteorologist and was the head of Australia’s National Climate Centre from 1986 to 1998) points out just some of the history that Warmists ignore. Note that Hannibal's transit of the Alps with elephants during the Roman warm period is one of the best known events in ancient history. It is regarded as impossible today

The graph below shows temperatures reconstructed from Greenland ice cores and published in the peer reviewed literature. The data confirm pre-IPCC understanding of the climate history of the Earth: Earth warmed from the last glacial maximum about 15,000 years ago when great ice sheets covered North America and northern Europe and sea level was about 130 m lower than today. By 9,000 years ago Earth had warmed to the Holocene maximum when temperatures were warmer than today; the Holocene maximum lasted until about 4,000 years ago and there has been irregular cooling since.

Times Online - Nick Clegg today defended a decision under the Human Rights Act to allow two Pakistani terror suspects to walk free in the UK despite an assessment that they pose a serious threat to the British public. In his first major set-piece speech to launch the Liberal-Conservative programme of political reform, Mr Clegg said, “The law is very clear that it is wrong to deport people where there is risk that they will be seriously mistreated, tortured or even killed.”

Nick clegg is the leader of the mad-left party the Conservatives in Britain have climbed into bed with to govern the country as a sort of half-assed coalition. Some warned the Conservatives against this, but I guess we all know where that went. So now this nutjob stands there with a straight face and says that jihadist scum should be allowed to roam the streets of the UK under surveillance [sure] because deporting them could get them beaten and killed.

Honestly, whose side are you on nick, perhaps someone should tell this idiot that he's now leading the country, that he's responsible for keeping the nation safe and that's his first priority. He's no longer a liberal halfwit who gets to support muslim jihadists safe in the knowledge that no one else has to bear the consequences of his stupidity.

But the accusatory tone towards skeptics is there too, of course. The article is by Kerry Emanuel, director of the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So this would seem to be the best science that Warmism can do. Yet all he succeeds in doing is to show how shaky the whole edifice is.

His claim that temperatures have been rising for a long time is correct but it is not what the Warmists normally say. They trace it back only a few decades.

And he completely ignores or denies denies such well-established facts as the Roman and Medieval warm periods, both of which were clearly warmer than today. See HERE for temperature graphs from all over the world which display such periods.

He is actually quite good at setting out the many uncertainties underlying the model-based forecasts but still in the end holds the models up as "evidence", which they are not. Guesses are not evidence. And one of the crucial guesses involved -- cloud feedback -- is on all the evidence so far the reverse of the truth.

No wonder he adds the footnote: Clarification: An earlier version of this op-ed bore the headline "Climate changes are proven fact," which did not reflect the view of the author.

Quite pathetic. Dick Lindzen thinks so too. In old-fashioned terms, Prof. Emanuel has sold his soul to the Devil. Going along with the current scientific orthodoxy no doubt has many rewards for him.

Centre/Left leader: "Tell us the laws that you want scrapped". The liberals (centre/Left) and Conservatives (centre/Right) seem to be agreed on reducing the authoritarianism put in place by the previous far-Left Labour government. The fact that the Liberals are making the running with Conservative support should ensure easy passage of the new measures. The end of the politically correct madhouse that has been Britain in recent years may be in sight

The most radical redistribution of power from the state to the people for 200 years is to be made by the new coalition Government, Nick Clegg is to claim. The public will be asked what laws they want ripped up, in far-reaching reforms designed to put back “faith in politics”, the Deputy Prime Minister will say.

The reordering of power will sweep away Labour legislation and new criminal offences deemed to have eroded personal freedom.

News.com.au - SIR Bob Geldof has made an impassioned, off-the-cuff speech in Brisbane this morning, labelling Australians treatment of Aborigines as "economically stupid" and "absurd". The Live Aid humanitarian said Australia has “exiled” indigenous Australians from the nation. "They were forced to be exiled from themselves and that must stop," he said.

Sorry to burst your angry, whiny bubble bob, but no one has exiled them from Australia, they are free to come and go as they please, they are free to work, start businesses, learn etc. Nothing and no one is stopping them from doing any of this, apart from in your pot-induced(?) fantasy world.

If anything it's the leftist crowd who have encouraged them to remain out in the bush living off welfare and sponging their lives away.

"You need to pull them back into themselves because you’ve acknowledged them as being.

What the heck does even mean.

"The spiritual core of yourselves will only be filled when this is done."

Fox News - Arizona’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers even more than once thought -- a whopping $2.7 billion, according to researchers at the public interest group that helped write the state's new immigration law. Researchers at FAIR – The Federation for American Immigration Reform -- released data exclusively to FoxNews.com that show a steady cost climb in multiple areas, including incarceration, education and health, in the last five years. FAIR’s cost estimates – compiled for a comprehensive national immigration report it plans to release next month – include several new cost areas, including welfare and the justice system, that weren’t in previous reports.

Well there you have it liberals, illegal immigration is costing the state of Arizona $2.7 billion, now I don't speak for the state of Arizona but I think I have a way for their hated immigration law to be repealed, overturned, tossed out etc. Yes, I know it's only liberal fascists who hate the law, but bear with me while I explain. The way I see it, liberals should immediately start an illegal immigrant fund, entirely voluntary, non-governmental and funded by liberals who hate Arizona's immigration law, fret over it during the day and can't sleep at night because of it.

I also feel this fund should be open to liberals and leftists all across the planet, after all they're smearing the taxpayers of Arizona for refusing to fund the illegals. So this way liberals and leftists the world over can put their money where their mouths are raising money for Mexicans and also prove that they're not racists and bigots.

Warmists were equally certain that the big frog die-off of a few years ago was due to global warming. They now admit that it was a fungus that caused the problem. Who knows what the real explanation will be this time? We old guys do have pesky memories, don't we? -- JR‏

When it comes to the hazards of global warming, it may turn out that lizards in burrows are the canaries in the coal mine.

In a study to be published Friday in the journal Science, an international team of biologists reports that in more than one-tenth of the places in Mexico where lizards flourished in 1975, the reptiles now cannot be found. The researchers predict that by 2080, about 40 percent of local lizard populations worldwide will have died off and 20 percent of lizard species will be extinct.

The reason for the huge die-off appears to be rising temperatures. But it isn't heat that is killing the lizards directly.

Instead, global warming appears to be lengthening the period of the day when lizards must seek shelter or risk fatal overheating. In the breeding season, that sheltering period is now so long that females of many species are unable to eat enough food to produce eggs and offspring.

Springs that start earlier and are warmer than they once were have been noted in many regions of the world in the past three decades. The new study suggests that the phenomenon may be far more important for the survival of some animals than peak summer temperatures, said Barry Sinervo, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz who headed the 26-person research team...

"As everyone knows, the First Amendment guarantees the fundamental right of freedom of speech from infringement at the hands of U.S. officials. But ever since 9/11, there has been an important limitation placed on such freedom. While Americans are still free to condemn U.S. aggression abroad, the U.S. Empire does not permit Americans to exhort foreign citizens to resist U.S. foreign aggression with violence. If U.S. officials suspect that an American citizen is exhorting foreigners to resist U.S. aggression abroad, they wield the power to do one of three things to that citizen:

1. Treat him as a criminal defendant by indicting and prosecuting him in U.S. District Court for supporting terrorism. If they can establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant encouraged foreigners to resist U.S. aggression with violence, they can secure a criminal conviction that will result in a mandatory life sentence in a federal penitentiary.

The above is written by a libertarian who opposes U.S. wars abroad, as the majority of libertarians do and as American conservatives traditionally did. So the language is a bit inflammatory. But he does point out an important truth: That SOME limits on free speech have always been accepted. You are not free to libel people for instance.

And all countries that I know of do not allow support for the enemy in time of war. And America is clearly at war with fundamentalist Muslims, even if Eric Holder refuses to say so. As with Pearl Harbor, America did not seek the war but the 9/11 attacks clearly were a declaration of war and the continuing hostility is clearly limited only by Muslim stupidity and limited ability to wage hostilities.

And America is in fact fighting on behalf of the developed world generally. Many Britons, Australians and Spaniards have also been killed by Jihadi bombs. Those who propose to let the Jihadis run riot simply lack cojones or live in their own delusory version of reality, as most Leftists and some libertarians do.

News.com.au - CHILDREN as young as three have been questioned about kissing and flirting in a project by a Melbourne university researcher. Monash University's Dr Mindy Blaise, who spent five days at an unnamed childcare centre, wants sexuality to be an official subject at kinders and preschool centres. It would include discussions about homosexuality. Dr Blaise said it was important that kids felt "healthy sexuality was not dirty or wrong".

Oh yeah folks, it's crucial, vital to their survival even, for little toddlers to know about sex and more importantly bum-sex. Never mind Lego and learning to read and write, they must know about sex when they're 3 years old! I wonder which idiot parents allowed this questionable character near their children, perhaps ones with loose ideas about children and sex I suppose.

I should add too, this seems to be a new front on the push to get children into sexuality, usually it's in the form of sex education, teaching them all about sex so they know how to do it properly, in the hope that they then won't. Now it seems, there's a sudden yearning, a thirst for knowledge if you will on the part of these types, for childrens views on sex. I'm sure it must keep them up at night, tossing and turning, what do the toddlers think about gay sex!

So Tiny Tim was the father of the global warming movement? Yeah, that fits. Make sure you at least make it to the chorus where he starts screaming "The Icecaps are meltin Oh-oh-oh-oh-OOOOOOOh!"

But you've got to decide who's crazier? Tiny Tim is the obvious kind of bonkers that you see on street corners and cross the street to avoid whereas Al Gore is the more dangerous kind of looney that isn't immediately apparent and you don't know he's flipped until he's sitting in your living room eating your Chinese food and lecturing you that your freezer's running too high.

So compare Gore's performance with Tiny Tim's and tell me who you think is crazier.

Now, you tell me how Tiny Tim's performance is any more embarassing or less looney than this:

Two walk into the cage. Only one walks out. You decide. Who is crazier?

About

This blog is written solely by John Ray, who has a Ph.D. degree in psychology and 200+ papers published in the academic journals of the social sciences. It does occasionally comment on issues in psychology but is mainly aimed at giving a conservative psychologist's view on a broad range of topics. There are very few conservative psychologists. The blog originated in Australia and many (but not most) posts discuss Australian matters. Australians have an unusually good awareness of events outside their own country. Australian newspapers feature news from Britain and the USA not as an afterthought but as a major part of their coverage. So Australians do tend to have a truly Western heart, which is the reason behind the old name for this blog. So events in Australia, Britain and the USA all feature frequently here, plus occasional coverage of other places, particularly Israel.

A primer in American politics for non-Americans:

SCOTUS is the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the land

The "GOP" stands for "Grand Old Party" and refers to the Republican party. The GOP is at present center/Right, while the Democrats have been undergoing a steady drift Leftwards and now have policies similar to mainstream European Leftist parties.

The ideological identity of both parties has however been very fluid -- almost reversing itself over time. In the mid 19th century, the GOP was the party of big government and concern for minorities while the Democrats advertised themselves as "The party of the white man" -- an orientation that lasted into the mid 20th century in the South. The Democrats are still obsessed with race but have now flipped into support for discrimination AGAINST whites.

Was Pope Urban VIII the first Warmist? Below we see him refusing to look through Galileo's telescope. People tend to refuse to consider evidence— if what they might discover contradicts what they believe.

Some brief observations about Leftism

As a good academic, I first define my terms: A Leftist is a person who is so dissatisfied with the way things naturally are that he/she is prepared to use force to make people behave in ways that they otherwise would not.

Leftists think that utopia can be coerced into existence -- so no dishonesty or brutality is beyond them in pursuit of that "noble" goal

Leftism is fundamentally authoritarian. Whether by revolution or by legislation, Leftists aim to change what people can and must do. When in 2008 Obama said that he wanted to "fundamentally transform" America, he was not talking about America's geography or topography but rather about American people. He wanted them to stop doing things that they wanted to do and make them do things that they did not want to do. Can you get a better definition of authoritarianism than that?

And note that an American President is elected to administer the law, not make it. That seems to have escaped Mr Obama

That Leftism is intrinsically authoritarian is not a new insight. It was well understood by none other than Friedrich Engels (Yes. THAT Engels). His excellent short essay On authority was written as a reproof to the dreamy Anarchist Left of his day. It concludes: "A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means"

Evan Sayet: The Left sides "...invariably with evil over good, wrong over right, and the behaviors that lead to failure over those that lead to success." (t=5:35+ on video)

Some useful definitions:

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one. If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat. If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone. If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him. If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down. If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!) If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

Death taxes: You would expect a conscientious person, of whatever degree of intelligence, to reflect on the strange contradiction involved in denying people the right to unearned wealth, while supporting programs that give people unearned wealth.

America is no longer the land of the free. It is now the land of the regulated -- though it is not alone in that, of course

Envy is a strong and widespread human emotion so there has alway been widespread support for policies of economic "levelling". Both the USA and the modern-day State of Israel were founded by communists but reality taught both societies that respect for the individual gave much better outcomes than levelling ideas. Sadly, there are many people in both societies in whom hatred for others is so strong that they are incapable of respect for the individual. The destructiveness of what they support causes them to call themselves many names in different times and places but they are the backbone of the political Left

The large number of rich Leftists suggests that, for them, envy is secondary. They are directly driven by hatred and scorn for many of the other people that they see about them. Hatred of others can be rooted in many things, not only in envy. But the haters come together as the Left.

Leftists hate the world around them and want to change it: the people in it most particularly. Conservatives just want to be left alone to make their own decisions and follow their own values.

The failure of the Soviet experiment has definitely made the American Left more vicious and hate-filled than they were. The plain failure of what passed for ideas among them has enraged rather than humbled them.

Ronald Reagan famously observed that the status quo is Latin for “the mess we’re in.” So much for the vacant Leftist claim that conservatives are simply defenders of the status quo. They think that conservatives are as lacking in principles as they are.

The shallow thinkers of the Left sometimes claim that conservatives want to impose their own will on others in the matter of abortion. To make that claim is however to confuse religion with politics. Conservatives are in fact divided about their response to abortion. The REAL opposition to abortion is religious rather than political. And the church which has historically tended to support the LEFT -- the Roman Catholic church -- is the most fervent in the anti-abortion cause. Conservatives are indeed the one side of politics to have moral qualms on the issue but they tend to seek a middle road in dealing with it. Taking the issue to the point of legal prohibitions is a religious doctrine rather than a conservative one -- and the religion concerned may or may not be characteristically conservative. More on that here

The Leftist hunger for change to the society that they hate leads to a hunger for control over other people. And they will do and say anything to get that control: "Power at any price". Leftist politicians are mostly self-aggrandizing crooks who gain power by deceiving the uninformed with snake-oil promises -- power which they invariably use to destroy. Destruction is all that they are good at. Destruction is what haters do.

Leftists are consistent only in their hate. They don't have principles. How can they when "there is no such thing as right and wrong"? All they have is postures, pretend-principles that can be changed as easily as one changes one's shirt

A Leftist assumption: Making money doesn't entitle you to it, but wanting money does.

"Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep your own money." --columnist Joe Sobran (1946-2010)

I often wonder why Leftists refer to conservatives as "wingnuts". A wingnut is a very useful device that adds versatility wherever it is used. Clearly, Leftists are not even good at abuse. Once they have accused their opponents of racism and Nazism, their cupboard is bare. Similarly, Leftists seem to think it is a devastating critique to refer to "Worldnet Daily" as "Worldnut Daily". The poverty of their argumentation is truly pitiful

The Leftist assertion that there is no such thing as right and wrong has a distinguished history. It was Pontius Pilate who said "What is truth?" (John 18:38). From a Christian viewpoint, the assertion is undoubtedly the Devil's gospel

"If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action." - Ludwig von Mises

Because of their need to be different from the mainstream, Leftists are very good at pretending that sow's ears are silk purses

Among people who should know better, Leftism is a character defect. Leftists HATE success in others -- which is why notably successful societies such as the USA and Israel are hated and failures such as the Palestinians can do no wrong.

A Leftist's beliefs are all designed to pander to his ego. So when you have an argument with a Leftist, you are not really discussing the facts. You are threatening his self esteem. Which is why the normal Leftist response to challenge is mere abuse.

Because of the fragility of a Leftist's ego, anything that threatens it is intolerable and provokes rage. So most Leftist blogs can be summarized in one sentence: "How DARE anybody question what I believe!". Rage and abuse substitute for an appeal to facts and reason.

Their threatened egos sometimes drive Leftists into quite desperate flights from reality. For instance, they often call Israel an "Apartheid state" -- when it is in fact the Arab states that practice Apartheid -- witness the severe restrictions on Christians in Saudi Arabia. There are no such restrictions in Israel.

Because their beliefs serve their ego rather than reality, Leftists just KNOW what is good for us. Conservatives need evidence.

“Absolute certainty is the privilege of uneducated men and fanatics.” -- C.J. Keyser

"Almost all professors of the arts and sciences are egregiously conceited, and derive their happiness from their conceit" -- Erasmus

THE FALSIFICATION OF HISTORY HAS DONE MORE TO IMPEDE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT THAN ANY ONE THING KNOWN TO MANKIND -- ROUSSEAU

"Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him" (Proverbs 26: 12). I think that sums up Leftists pretty well.

Eminent British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington is often quoted as saying: "Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." It was probably in fact said by his contemporary, J.B.S. Haldane. But regardless of authorship, it could well be a conservative credo not only about the cosmos but also about human beings and human society. Mankind is too complex to be summed up by simple rules and even complex rules are only approximations with many exceptions.

Politics is the only thing Leftists know about. They know nothing of economics, history or business. Their only expertise is in promoting feelings of grievance

Socialism makes the individual the slave of the state – capitalism frees them.

MESSAGE to Leftists: Even if you killed all conservatives tomorrow, you would just end up in another Soviet Union. Conservatives are all that stand between you and that dismal fate.

Many readers here will have noticed that what I say about Leftists sometimes sounds reminiscent of what Leftists say about conservatives. There is an excellent reason for that. Leftists are great "projectors" (people who see their own faults in others). So a good first step in finding out what is true of Leftists is to look at what they say about conservatives! They even accuse conservatives of projection (of course).

The research shows clearly that one's Left/Right stance is strongly genetically inherited but nobody knows just what specifically is inherited. What is inherited that makes people Leftist or Rightist? There is any amount of evidence that personality traits are strongly genetically inherited so my proposal is that hard-core Leftists are people who tend to let their emotions (including hatred and envy) run away with them and who are much more in need of seeing themselves as better than others -- two attributes that are probably related to one another. Such Leftists may be an evolutionary leftover from a more primitive past.

Leftists seem to believe that if someone like Al Gore says it, it must be right. They obviously have a strong need for an authority figure. The fact that the two most authoritarian regimes of the 20th century (Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia) were socialist is thus no surprise. Leftists often accuse conservatives of being "authoritarian" but that is just part of their usual "projective" strategy -- seeing in others what is really true of themselves.

"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here. For roughly two centuries now, antisemitism has, throughout the Western world, been principally associated with Leftism (including the socialist Hitler) -- as it is to this day. See here.

Leftists call their hatred of Israel "Anti-Zionism" but Zionists are only a small minority in Israel

Some of the Leftist hatred of Israel is motivated by old-fashioned antisemitism (beliefs in Jewish "control" etc.) but most of it is just the regular Leftist hatred of success in others. And because the societies they inhabit do not give them the vast amount of recognition that their large but weak egos need, some of the most virulent haters of Israel and America live in those countries. So the hatred is the product of pathologically high self-esteem.

"With their infernal racial set-asides, racial quotas, and race norming, liberals share many of the Klan's premises. The Klan sees the world in terms of race and ethnicity. So do liberals! Indeed, liberals and white supremacists are the only people left in America who are neurotically obsessed with race. Conservatives champion a color-blind society" -- Ann Coulter

Who said this in 1968? "I am not, and never have been, a man of the right. My position was on the Left and is now in the centre of politics". It was Sir Oswald Mosley, founder and leader of the British Union of Fascists

The term "Fascism" is mostly used by the Left as a brainless term of abuse. But when they do make a serious attempt to define it, they produce very complex and elaborate definitions -- e.g. here and here. In fact, Fascism is simply extreme socialism plus nationalism. But great gyrations are needed to avoid mentioning the first part of that recipe, of course.

Politicians are in general only a little above average in intelligence so the idea that they can make better decisions for us that we can make ourselves is laughable

A quote from the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931–2005: "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

A lesson in Australian: When an Australian calls someone a "big-noter", he is saying that the person is a chronic and rather pathetic seeker of admiration -- as in someone who often pulls out "big notes" (e.g. $100.00 bills) to pay for things, thus endeavouring to create the impression that he is rich. The term describes the mentality rather than the actual behavior with money and it aptly describes many Leftists. When they purport to show "compassion" by advocating things that cost themselves nothing (e.g. advocating more taxes on "the rich" to help "the poor"), an Australian might say that the Leftist is "big-noting himself". There is an example of the usage here. The term conveys contempt. There is a wise description of Australians generally here

Heritage is what survives death: Very rare and hence very valuable

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

If any of the short observations above about Leftism seem wrong, note that they do not stand alone. The evidence for them is set out at great length in a MONOGRAPH on Leftism.

You can email me (John Ray) here (Hotmail address). In emailing me, you can address me as "John", "Jon", "Dr. Ray" or "JR" and that will be fine -- but my preference is for "JR"

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)